Persuasion

Persuasion

Advertising is about selling. By nature, advertising is neither neutral nor objective. Pleading its case through the strongest, most persuasive means, advertising informs, entertains and sells. Occasionally, it even inspires. If advertising is about selling, then persuasion is how we get there.

BACKGROUND

Consumers are not persuaded by illogical or irrational promises and can see through ill-conceived ideas. You might be surprised to learn that 80 to 90 percent of new products launched FAIL. Smart marketers hold the utmost respect for their consumers in two ways: 1) delivering product quality and 2) using honest advertising. Think about yourself as a consumer for a moment. How do you respond to the advertising you are exposed to each day? Do you run out and buy everything you see and hear advertised? Are you easily convinced that you absolutely need to buy a product?

You may be starting to get a sense of how difficult it is to persuade someone. Before looking at some of advertising's greatest attempts, let's try to understand just what an advertiser's challenge is.

Although our society is fortunate to have a proliferation of products and services, consumers must somehow wade through millions of products crammed on retail shelves and sort through thousands of marketing messages that fight for their attention every day. Commercial messages appear just about everywhere - - on TV, in magazines, newspapers, billboards, on the radio, on buses, in phone booths, sports arenas, on the Internet, even in public toilets. The average American is exposed to over 3,000 ads a day.

Considering this, and today's hi-tech electronic environment, advertisers are challenged as never before to get their message to consumers. As a result, advertising's job is extremely difficult.

The key to creating advertising that engenders persuasion is to have a sound and properly focused advertising strategy. It is necessary to understand who the consumer is and what his/her attitudes and product usage habits are in order to develop this strategy.

ADVERTISING STRATEGY

An advertising strategy identifies who the prospective target is and defines his/her needs, wants and desires. This meaningful information, when clearly and creatively executed, should translate to a call to action: "I'm going to buy this product." The common form for a written strategy is:

Objective: States what you would like to convince consumers to feel or do as a result of the advertising execution. This statement should be the central, singular marketplace problem facing the brand.

Target Audience: Who is your prime prospect/customer? (Include age, gender and any other pertinent demographic/psycho-graphic information and/or lifestyle explanation of who your target customers are.)

Key Consumer Benefit: Must go beyond "Cleans your windows" or "Tastes great." What (singular) thought/belief about consumers' lives, brand feelings, category assumptions, hopes, dreams, expectations, worries, cultural beliefs, etc., will cause a strong reaction and get the target's attention?

Reason to Believe: Which one or two product attributes will persuade the consumer to believe the product will deliver the promised benefits? In other words, what is the single most important fact, angle, direction, sentiment or emotion that can be communicated in order to meet business objectives/solve the problem?

Proof: Provide support.

Tone and Manner: Affects the setting, look and feel of the execution. Must be relevant to the target audience to drive the message.

Once the strategy is agreed upon, development of the advertising begins. On-going research is conducted among targeted consumers to evaluate and check whether the ad is communicating the strategy and whether it evokes the desired action.

Choose one or two commercials (either from your own reel or those that follow) and have students participate by trying to figure out what the objective, reason to believe, etc., is for each spot.

When product sales decline, one of two factors is usually to blame: 1) consumer dissatisfaction with the product or 2) the advertising has gotten stale. Through research among the target consumer group, advertisers and their agencies learn what the problem is and, by talking with the consumers who use it, determine how they will solve it.

CASE STUDIES

The following actual case studies demonstrate four advertising success stories. Almost all involve consumer research that resulted in a revised creative strategy and new advertising that was created to increase consumer awareness to give the brand a stronger image.

PANTENE - The Evolving Approach to a Global Brand

In 1990, Procter & Gamble (P&G) made the decision to launch their small premium Pantene Shampoo brand around the world. P&G's decision was not based on pure whimsy; it was based on strategic market research conducted globally for this premium-priced two-in-one shampoo/conditioner. Research results, compiled from markets around the world, led P&G to hypothesize that health positioning might provide the basis for a new worldwide hair care franchise. Why? The research indicated that:

Women believed the ideal standard for hair is "healthy".

Women considered their own hair damaged.

Women believed that shine signaled health.

Pro-vitamin formulation provided real support for claims.

Advertising was developed around the health positioning and was launched globally. The advertising was customized at the local level with the tag line, "Hair So Healthy It Shines."

The challenges to advertise Pantene in local markets (country to country) were numerous. First of all, after identifying that "Hair So Healthy It Shines" would be the central strategic product benefit that would be meaningful around the world, P&G had to determine how best to express this benefit in local markets. Next, the product's benefit and reason-why (to purchase) had to be communicated and visualized in arresting ways. There were four lead countries in the 1990 launch. Each communicated a different